It is well known to those familar with the knitting industry that production is increased by the addition of more yarn feed stations on a circular machine. Hosiery machines generally have a needle cylinder of about 4 inches in diameter and it is known to put as many as 12 feed stations about the circumference of such a machine, but because of space limitations, sacrifices in operating effeciency have been heretofore required, with the result that 8 feed stations is about the maximum number of feeds for practical purposes, and many mills prefer fewer feeds for consistent operation.
Successive needles are raised at each feed station to take yarn for forming new stitches. It is conventional to employ jacks to raise the needles on multi-feed machines. The jacks are positioned immediately beneath the needles in vertical grooves around the circumference of the needle cylinder. The jacks are equipped with butts which engage lifting cams positioned in the path of the jack butts at each feed station. The cams cause the jacks to rise within their respective grooves and to abut directly against the knitting needles positioned above the jacks in corresponding grooves, causing upward movement of the needles directly proportional to the upward movement of the jacks caused by their engagement with the cams.